Temple University Athletics
Hall of Fame Spotlight: Marilyn Stephens
1.17.24 | General, Women's Basketball
Marilyn Stephens is arguably the greatest player in the history of Temple Women's Basketball.
The Philadelphia native (Simon Gratz HS) set school records with 2,194 points and 1,516 rebounds in her career four-year career (1980-84) with the Owls. As a senior, she was selected to the prestigious Kodak All-American basketball team and is the only First Team All-America in program history.
A two-time Philadelphia Big 5 Player of the Year and four-time first team selection, Stephens was inducted into the Big 5 Hall of Fame in 1989. It would be the first of many Halls of Fame and post graduate honors she would receive.
She was named Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Year in 1983 and 1984 and was a member of the US Women's Junior Olympic team in 1981. She was also invited to the US Olympic trials in 1984.
Stephens led Temple to its first two Big 5 titles (1983, 1984) and first 20-win season in 1981-82. She helped turn the women's basketball program around, leading the Owls to three straight winning seasons for the first time since the 1950s.
She is also one of only two Temple women's basketball players to have her number retired.
After graduation, she played professional basketball overseas in Italy and Spain. Upon her return to the states, she would make various coaching stops, including as an assistant at Temple. She currently is a teacher at Coatesville Area Intermediate High School.
She resides in West Chester, Pa. and has two daughters, Marilyn and Adashia, and three grandchildren, Zhion, Zaryah and Manny.
You were an All-America High School player at Simon Gratz. Did you consider other schools besides Temple and why Temple?
"I was a late bloomer at Gratz. My mother was my first athletic coach in my early years. as a family, we would go roller skating weekly which helped me with my balance on the court. She taught me how to jump double dutch which helped me with my agility, how to swim, how to ride my bike. I was into music and other things like roller skating at first. I never picked up a ball until a hall monitor said to me at Gillespie Jr. High that I was tall enough to play basketball. That is how I got into it.
My first game was horrible. I shot at the wrong basket. Ran with the ball when they threw it to me (laughing). I was laughed at, humiliated. So, I was like, that is the last time you are going to laugh at me. So, I just practiced and then I met John Chaney and Sonny Hill. They had me play in the boys' future league in McGonigle Hall and that really helped me. I was the only girl on the team.
That experience in the future league, playing in McGonigle Hall and seeing the history really led me to coming to Temple to play basketball.
Andy McGovern (Temple WBB coach) recruited me and when he left, he called me and told me he was going to Villanova, and he asked if I wanted to go with him, and I told him no, that I was going to Temple.
I lived two miles from Temple's campus so it was close enough that my mom and family could come to the game. Also, I already had the Philadelphia media following me from high school as I averaged two points in 10th grade, 15 points in 11th grade and 12th grade 25 points and 28 rebounds. I learned how to play at the John Chaney and Sonny Hill Camp so Temple and McGonigle Hall was home to me.
It all happened because Ina Newman, my coach at Gratz, sent me to John Chaney's camp when I was 16 years old.
As for other schools, my choices were down to the University of Maryland, Cheyney State and Temple. It was tough but my heart was with Temple. My friends questioned me because I was a 'blue chipper', and highly recruited nationally and locally with over 100 offers, but I stayed with my choice despite it all."
What are your best memories as a player at Temple?
"My first year I had to figure out how to blend in being new to the team and I was also the only freshman. Temple also had a new coach in Linda MacDonald, and she would tell me to play through it and play tough. So, I worked on grabbing every rebound I could get as I enjoyed rebounding better than scoring. I also remember when I missed a dunk in a game against Rutgers. We were getting blown out and that attempt sparked up the team and we lost by three points to a nationally ranked team.
I will never forget when our bus broke down going to Vermont. We lost heat and had to jell together. It was the first time we went through adversity as a team, and we had to figure out how to work together as we were stranded. We sang songs, got our warmup jerseys from under the bus to stay warm. We made the most out of the experience and it taught us how to play through adversity. Lynn Blaszczyk would sing her favorite Willie Nelson song "On the Road Again", which kept us laughing. It made us closer as a team. We still talk about it.
I talked with Coach MacDonald about it later and she said that we would not be making those types of road trips anymore as the NCAA was taking over women's sports. The following year we started flying everywhere.
As for big wins, my senior year I will never forget beating Cheyney State after they had blown us out the previous three years. I had 23 points and 17 rebounds in that win."
How special was it to be selected to the prestigious Kodak All-America Team as a senior? And did you realize at the time it was the first Kodak team featuring all African American players?
'Making the Kodak All-America Team was special to me. Coach MacDonald was instrumental with it because my junior year they had to promote me and get my (video) tape together. They told me to wait by the phone for a call (from the selection committee), but that would never come. Some of the coaches on the committee said the video needed to be more professional. Coach MacDonald made sure my senior year video tape was done professionally. She also played only nine home games because Coach wanted to go on the road so more people could see us.
Regarding the team consisting of all African American players, we all noticed it the first time we met at the hotel. We just looked at each other and said, 'do you notice something?' I just saw something in December that the NCAA acknowledged that fact on our upcoming 40th Anniversary."
Talk about your professional career overseas?
"It was good. I played in Italy and Spain, but just for a season. I was grateful to have the opportunity, but then that was it. Once I got there, I did not enjoy playing basketball there as much as I did in college. You had the language barrier, which was not easy. I was also homesick. The facilities were nice, but it was a culture shock. They also played on a concrete floor which was a killer on my knees.
On the positive side, it was an experience, and I would not trade it for anything else. Look where basketball has taken me just by dribbling a ball."
Following your playing days, you entered the coaching profession. Talk about becoming the first woman to coach boys' basketball in the state of Florida at Coral Reef Senior High.
"It happened because of John Chaney. I used to play pickup with him, Sonny Hill, Dean Demopoulos and Jay Norman when I was at Temple. They would knock me down and I would put my hand up for them to pick me up and they would look at me and keep walking (laughing). That made me tougher. I remember Coach Chaney telling me, 'I don't teach men or women, I teach athletes.'
As for my experience at Coral Reef, I coached the girls team my first year. Then the boys job opened, and I thought, I can do that as I thought back to Coach Chaney's remark about athletes. When the newspapers interviewed me after I was named coach, I said, 'Do you take your child out of English class because it is a male teacher or a female teacher? Do you take your son out because you do not want a female teaching your son? So, a layup is the same layup for a guy as it is for a girl? The mechanics are the same. Basketball is the same, the only difference is who is playing it."
While coaching boys, the first year I had a referee not shake my hand in the huddle when the coaches met at center court. Later I took my team to a camp at the University of Florida, and I was washing our uniforms in the laundry room. All the male coaches were washing their team's uniforms as well. They asked me if I was the team mom. When I told them I was the head coach they made a big deal of it as they could not believe it. We did well at the tournament. We almost beat one team and at the end of the game when I shook hands with their coach I said, 'I had you sweating there didn't I.' No one wanted to lose to the female coach.
We also heard another coach talking to his team once at that tournament, as our locker rooms were next to each other. He was saying to them, 'I will not be beat by that female.' I told my guys, 'If he is worried about me beating him then we already won because I am not playing.'
Our players learned a lot. I still keep in contact with some of the players. They now realize what they had in front of them at that time (in a female coach)."
You later coached four seasons at Cheyney University in 2009 and joined your brother, Dominique Stephens, who was the head coach of the men's program. How special was that?
"That was special because I believe it was the first time in NCAA history that a brother and sister were head basketball coaches at the same school. My niece, Angel, played for me there while my brother's son, Dominique, and sister Marian's son, Calvin, played for him. It was all in the family.
You always want the men's and women's coaches to work close together. At Temple, Coach Chaney and Coach MacDonald were good buddies and worked well together. They shared ideas, plays, etc. and that was positive. That was the same way my brother and I were. We shared plays, talked and be at the school late at night. We were good together. He looked out for my team while I looked out for his team. It was an awesome experience to be able to work with someone you trust. You do not always have that as sometimes the men's and women's coaches do not get along.
You have been inducted in many Halls of Fame in your lifetime, does one stand out more than the rest?
"The Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame was the first one and Temple was right around the same time. They were so special. The Big 5 was at The Palestra and that is where I played my first championship game and that made it special. The Temple honor was even more special, not just the Hall of Fame but when my number was retired. I realized I would be the last player to wear #33. My oldest daughter came to a Temple game when she was older and was impressed by my number hanging from the rafters.
Being inducted into the Philadelphia Black Basketball Hall of Fame was also special. When you are being recognized by your own it does something which made it really special. That night I saw players that I had not seen in 40 years. Also, Black Women in Sports Legend Hall of Fame is so special because my mentors, Tina Sloan Green, Dr. Nikkie Frank and Dr. Alpha Alexander, are co-founders and guided me throughout my Temple career. They were there in the beginning and still are today. The Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame is also an awesome feeling to be recognized by your city.
Finally, I can't forget being in the Inaugural Atlantic 10 Legends class with John Chaney. It was so special because of our relationship and the fact that my career started basically at his camp.
It is just good to be around greatness. To be mentioned in the same sentence as some other Hall of Famers is just an honor."
What are you doing now?
"I am teaching health and wellness, nutrition and sports and family consumer science at Coatesville Area Intermediate High School. I love what I do and have been here seven years. Teaching is the only profession that produces other professions. It was a teacher who taught me. Telling me, 'Why don't you go play basketball?'
My mom was also a teacher. She was a reading aide specialist. The neighborhood kids would come to our house, and she would teach them how to read. So, I got the value of teaching from her. I'm so grateful for my mother Evelyn Stephens for instilling in me, God, value, hard work and perseverance.
My job also gives me a chance to mentor kids. They value my input, especially on basketball.
I am enjoying it, enjoying my life and watching the fruits of my labor." I give God all the Glory for Blessing me with the physical ability and athletic talent, to play basketball at a high level. I could not have done it without God in my life."
The Philadelphia native (Simon Gratz HS) set school records with 2,194 points and 1,516 rebounds in her career four-year career (1980-84) with the Owls. As a senior, she was selected to the prestigious Kodak All-American basketball team and is the only First Team All-America in program history.
A two-time Philadelphia Big 5 Player of the Year and four-time first team selection, Stephens was inducted into the Big 5 Hall of Fame in 1989. It would be the first of many Halls of Fame and post graduate honors she would receive.
She was named Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Year in 1983 and 1984 and was a member of the US Women's Junior Olympic team in 1981. She was also invited to the US Olympic trials in 1984.
Stephens led Temple to its first two Big 5 titles (1983, 1984) and first 20-win season in 1981-82. She helped turn the women's basketball program around, leading the Owls to three straight winning seasons for the first time since the 1950s.
She is also one of only two Temple women's basketball players to have her number retired.
After graduation, she played professional basketball overseas in Italy and Spain. Upon her return to the states, she would make various coaching stops, including as an assistant at Temple. She currently is a teacher at Coatesville Area Intermediate High School.
She resides in West Chester, Pa. and has two daughters, Marilyn and Adashia, and three grandchildren, Zhion, Zaryah and Manny.
You were an All-America High School player at Simon Gratz. Did you consider other schools besides Temple and why Temple?
"I was a late bloomer at Gratz. My mother was my first athletic coach in my early years. as a family, we would go roller skating weekly which helped me with my balance on the court. She taught me how to jump double dutch which helped me with my agility, how to swim, how to ride my bike. I was into music and other things like roller skating at first. I never picked up a ball until a hall monitor said to me at Gillespie Jr. High that I was tall enough to play basketball. That is how I got into it.
My first game was horrible. I shot at the wrong basket. Ran with the ball when they threw it to me (laughing). I was laughed at, humiliated. So, I was like, that is the last time you are going to laugh at me. So, I just practiced and then I met John Chaney and Sonny Hill. They had me play in the boys' future league in McGonigle Hall and that really helped me. I was the only girl on the team.
That experience in the future league, playing in McGonigle Hall and seeing the history really led me to coming to Temple to play basketball.
Andy McGovern (Temple WBB coach) recruited me and when he left, he called me and told me he was going to Villanova, and he asked if I wanted to go with him, and I told him no, that I was going to Temple.
I lived two miles from Temple's campus so it was close enough that my mom and family could come to the game. Also, I already had the Philadelphia media following me from high school as I averaged two points in 10th grade, 15 points in 11th grade and 12th grade 25 points and 28 rebounds. I learned how to play at the John Chaney and Sonny Hill Camp so Temple and McGonigle Hall was home to me.
It all happened because Ina Newman, my coach at Gratz, sent me to John Chaney's camp when I was 16 years old.
As for other schools, my choices were down to the University of Maryland, Cheyney State and Temple. It was tough but my heart was with Temple. My friends questioned me because I was a 'blue chipper', and highly recruited nationally and locally with over 100 offers, but I stayed with my choice despite it all."
What are your best memories as a player at Temple?
"My first year I had to figure out how to blend in being new to the team and I was also the only freshman. Temple also had a new coach in Linda MacDonald, and she would tell me to play through it and play tough. So, I worked on grabbing every rebound I could get as I enjoyed rebounding better than scoring. I also remember when I missed a dunk in a game against Rutgers. We were getting blown out and that attempt sparked up the team and we lost by three points to a nationally ranked team.
I will never forget when our bus broke down going to Vermont. We lost heat and had to jell together. It was the first time we went through adversity as a team, and we had to figure out how to work together as we were stranded. We sang songs, got our warmup jerseys from under the bus to stay warm. We made the most out of the experience and it taught us how to play through adversity. Lynn Blaszczyk would sing her favorite Willie Nelson song "On the Road Again", which kept us laughing. It made us closer as a team. We still talk about it.
I talked with Coach MacDonald about it later and she said that we would not be making those types of road trips anymore as the NCAA was taking over women's sports. The following year we started flying everywhere.
As for big wins, my senior year I will never forget beating Cheyney State after they had blown us out the previous three years. I had 23 points and 17 rebounds in that win."
How special was it to be selected to the prestigious Kodak All-America Team as a senior? And did you realize at the time it was the first Kodak team featuring all African American players?
'Making the Kodak All-America Team was special to me. Coach MacDonald was instrumental with it because my junior year they had to promote me and get my (video) tape together. They told me to wait by the phone for a call (from the selection committee), but that would never come. Some of the coaches on the committee said the video needed to be more professional. Coach MacDonald made sure my senior year video tape was done professionally. She also played only nine home games because Coach wanted to go on the road so more people could see us.
Regarding the team consisting of all African American players, we all noticed it the first time we met at the hotel. We just looked at each other and said, 'do you notice something?' I just saw something in December that the NCAA acknowledged that fact on our upcoming 40th Anniversary."
Talk about your professional career overseas?
"It was good. I played in Italy and Spain, but just for a season. I was grateful to have the opportunity, but then that was it. Once I got there, I did not enjoy playing basketball there as much as I did in college. You had the language barrier, which was not easy. I was also homesick. The facilities were nice, but it was a culture shock. They also played on a concrete floor which was a killer on my knees.
On the positive side, it was an experience, and I would not trade it for anything else. Look where basketball has taken me just by dribbling a ball."
Following your playing days, you entered the coaching profession. Talk about becoming the first woman to coach boys' basketball in the state of Florida at Coral Reef Senior High.
"It happened because of John Chaney. I used to play pickup with him, Sonny Hill, Dean Demopoulos and Jay Norman when I was at Temple. They would knock me down and I would put my hand up for them to pick me up and they would look at me and keep walking (laughing). That made me tougher. I remember Coach Chaney telling me, 'I don't teach men or women, I teach athletes.'
As for my experience at Coral Reef, I coached the girls team my first year. Then the boys job opened, and I thought, I can do that as I thought back to Coach Chaney's remark about athletes. When the newspapers interviewed me after I was named coach, I said, 'Do you take your child out of English class because it is a male teacher or a female teacher? Do you take your son out because you do not want a female teaching your son? So, a layup is the same layup for a guy as it is for a girl? The mechanics are the same. Basketball is the same, the only difference is who is playing it."
While coaching boys, the first year I had a referee not shake my hand in the huddle when the coaches met at center court. Later I took my team to a camp at the University of Florida, and I was washing our uniforms in the laundry room. All the male coaches were washing their team's uniforms as well. They asked me if I was the team mom. When I told them I was the head coach they made a big deal of it as they could not believe it. We did well at the tournament. We almost beat one team and at the end of the game when I shook hands with their coach I said, 'I had you sweating there didn't I.' No one wanted to lose to the female coach.
We also heard another coach talking to his team once at that tournament, as our locker rooms were next to each other. He was saying to them, 'I will not be beat by that female.' I told my guys, 'If he is worried about me beating him then we already won because I am not playing.'
Our players learned a lot. I still keep in contact with some of the players. They now realize what they had in front of them at that time (in a female coach)."
You later coached four seasons at Cheyney University in 2009 and joined your brother, Dominique Stephens, who was the head coach of the men's program. How special was that?
"That was special because I believe it was the first time in NCAA history that a brother and sister were head basketball coaches at the same school. My niece, Angel, played for me there while my brother's son, Dominique, and sister Marian's son, Calvin, played for him. It was all in the family.
You always want the men's and women's coaches to work close together. At Temple, Coach Chaney and Coach MacDonald were good buddies and worked well together. They shared ideas, plays, etc. and that was positive. That was the same way my brother and I were. We shared plays, talked and be at the school late at night. We were good together. He looked out for my team while I looked out for his team. It was an awesome experience to be able to work with someone you trust. You do not always have that as sometimes the men's and women's coaches do not get along.
You have been inducted in many Halls of Fame in your lifetime, does one stand out more than the rest?
"The Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame was the first one and Temple was right around the same time. They were so special. The Big 5 was at The Palestra and that is where I played my first championship game and that made it special. The Temple honor was even more special, not just the Hall of Fame but when my number was retired. I realized I would be the last player to wear #33. My oldest daughter came to a Temple game when she was older and was impressed by my number hanging from the rafters.
Being inducted into the Philadelphia Black Basketball Hall of Fame was also special. When you are being recognized by your own it does something which made it really special. That night I saw players that I had not seen in 40 years. Also, Black Women in Sports Legend Hall of Fame is so special because my mentors, Tina Sloan Green, Dr. Nikkie Frank and Dr. Alpha Alexander, are co-founders and guided me throughout my Temple career. They were there in the beginning and still are today. The Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame is also an awesome feeling to be recognized by your city.
Finally, I can't forget being in the Inaugural Atlantic 10 Legends class with John Chaney. It was so special because of our relationship and the fact that my career started basically at his camp.
It is just good to be around greatness. To be mentioned in the same sentence as some other Hall of Famers is just an honor."
What are you doing now?
"I am teaching health and wellness, nutrition and sports and family consumer science at Coatesville Area Intermediate High School. I love what I do and have been here seven years. Teaching is the only profession that produces other professions. It was a teacher who taught me. Telling me, 'Why don't you go play basketball?'
My mom was also a teacher. She was a reading aide specialist. The neighborhood kids would come to our house, and she would teach them how to read. So, I got the value of teaching from her. I'm so grateful for my mother Evelyn Stephens for instilling in me, God, value, hard work and perseverance.
My job also gives me a chance to mentor kids. They value my input, especially on basketball.
I am enjoying it, enjoying my life and watching the fruits of my labor." I give God all the Glory for Blessing me with the physical ability and athletic talent, to play basketball at a high level. I could not have done it without God in my life."
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